WA EPA delays its new emissions guidelines

Brad ThompsonReporter

Sep 3, 2019 – 4.56pm

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The WA Environmental Protection Authority has pushed back its timetable for releasing new emissions guidelines to early next year after shelving moves to introduce a net zero emissions approval regime in March in the face of a backlash from the resources industry.

The EPA said on Tuesday that it could still include so-called scope 3, or customer, emissions in its guidelines despite a WA government move last week to muzzle its influence in project approvals.

The WA government's two-page major project emissions policy, announced with immediate effect on August 28 and designed to reassure the LNG and mining industries, gives companies more than 30 years to work toward an aspirational goal of net zero emissions and excludes consideration of so-called scope 3 emissions.

EPA chairman Tom Hatton said work on redrafting the emissions guidelines would begin after a review of the 6500 submissions received during a 12-week consultation period which ended at midnight on Monday.

“The guidance will make clear the expectations of the EPA for a proponent to avoid, reduce and then offset its greenhouse gas emissions,” he said.

“The EPA is yet to determine which scopes of emissions it will consider as part of assessing significant proposals as it is currently analysing the submissions received."

A government spokesman said the new policy was "designed with flexibility in mind and it will be up to proponents to outline their strategies to avoid, reduce, mitigate and offset the project’s direct emissions in a way that contributes towards the state’s aspiration of net zero by 2050.”

The EPA guidelines announced in March included an immediate move to net zero emissions and consideration of scope 3 emissions.

Remains concerned

Woodside Petroleum welcomed the government's new policy but the company's submission to the EPA shows it remains concerned about the EPA's impact on pending gas processing deals involving the Browse and Scarborough LNG projects, which together are worth more than $44 billion of investment.

"A particularly dangerous element of the EPA's proposed guidelines was that they were not drafts but came into immediate effect on the day they were published," Woodside said.

"This created (and continues to create) ongoing uncertainty for all proponents on whether they can rely on the EPA to establish 'rules of the game' against which they should conduct their assessments.

"The rescindment of the guidelines has not remedied this damage to confidence in the EPA regime."

The WA Labor government's new policy saw Premier Mark McGowan and his cabinet embrace the Morrison's government emissions reduction target and climate change policies.

The policy, which the WA government expects to shape the independent EPA's emissions guidelines, allows companies to set their own reduction timeframes and interim targets as well as excluding scope 3 emissions.

Under the policy, the WA government will consider credible international offsets to limit abatement costs, and will advocate with the Commonwealth to do the same under the Australian Government’s Safeguard Mechanism.

Brad Thompson writes across business and politics from Western Australia for The Australian Financial Review. Brad is based in our Perth bureau. Connect with Brad on Twitter. Email Brad at brad.thompson@afr.com